


California king

by withered



Series: In another life [14]
Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Cuddling, Drunken Flirting, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-07
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:27:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24593767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/withered/pseuds/withered
Summary: Bucky should be used to Tony ending up in his bed.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark
Series: In another life [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/927108
Comments: 36
Kudos: 423





	California king

Bucky is a responsible, law-abiding citizen; he will not throw his baby-genius roommate out the window. He won’t.

“Buuuutttt,” Tony whines.

Bucky – Bucky should know better. He should. He should pretend to be asleep. Frankly, he doesn’t even need to pretend.

After being up for almost two weeks straight trying to finish his project for the semester and subsisting off Red Bulls for just as long in lieu of actually sleeping, Bucky’s about ready to crash right now. The beer he’d had with Sam before retiring to his dorm room practically drowning his consciousness as he speaks.

Actually, come to think of it, he’s probably asleep right now and this is all a horrible, horrible alcohol-tinged dream.

“Come on,” Tony continues to cajole, sticking his lower lip out in a pout that Bucky _can feel_ because his roommate is spread over Bucky’s back like a melting chocolate bar, and Tony’s lip is touching Bucky’s ear, and Tony is talking all soft and _breathy and Bucky’s dick is definitely more than giving an interested twitch against the mattress –_

“Goddamn it, Stark,” he snarls, and Tony’s actually so surprised by this that he stills.

And for one _fleeting_ second, Bucky thinks _thank god –_ until – there’s a nudge of something firm and hot between the cheeks of his ass through his sweatpants – and _oh, holy god._

“Stark,” he groans around the pillow he’s trying to suffocate himself with, only for Tony to startle off his back with a, “Sorry, sorry – the growling, it’s the growling – it’s your fault, I didn’t know I had a thing for it until you did it and -”

He flips over fast enough to get Tony off his back, but now Tony is where Bucky was lying, and Tony’s looking up at him with doe-dark bright eyes and a beatific smile like he just got exactly what he wanted.

God knows what that even is; Tony’s genius brain works in languages and math that probably don’t even exist yet, and usually Bucky would be more than happy to be the one Tony bounces ideas off of – except Tony is lying in his bed with no idea how often Bucky’s imagined this.

Though, with the frankly impish smile Tony’s sporting, Bucky wouldn’t be surprised if he knew.

Bucky is about as subtle as a brick to the face.

With how often Bucky’s threatened to murder the jackasses that talk down to Tony because he happens to be the youngest in his program; how often Bucky’s subtly (and not so subtly) threatened to report faculty members who act like they can treat Tony differently; how Bucky had disrespected Howard Stark for how he’d spoken to Tony since they became roommates, it would be horribly embarrassing if Tony didn’t look so heart-breakingly grateful knowing he had someone in his corner.

That Bucky couldn’t just mind his own damn business and leave well enough alone during the anniversary of Tony’s mother’s death was really the nail in the proverbial coffin – Tony had invited him to the family estate over break to meet his caretakers, Ana and Edwin Jarvis who were so happy that Tony had someone that Bucky didn’t have the heart to correct the clearly wrong nature of their assumption.

With that in mind, it’s frankly cruel that Tony’s teasing him like this.

Bucky doesn’t know if he’s scowling or not, but Tony doesn’t seem deterred. He never does, he’s got the self-preservation skills of a dodo.

In fact, Tony’s making himself comfortable, reaching up to pat at Bucky’s cheek approvingly (it’s not adorable, it’s not) before breathing out in a satisfied sigh and closing his eyes.

Bucky would say he’s baffled by this, but he isn’t.

It certainly isn’t the first time Tony’s done something like this, and it probably won’t be the last. (Bucky stupidly hopes.)

Jim Rhodes, Tony’s roommate the previous year, had warned Bucky about a host of Tony’s idiosyncrasies: Tony’s all-hours access to the labs being routinely abused, his pet robot – a feat of his own creation – and his weird attempts to circumvent meeting basic human needs by gaining sustenance purely from questionable smoothie combinations and subsisting on cat-naps at inappropriate hours in inappropriate places, or whenever he drank which was technically illegal considering Tony Stark, boy genius, was still twenty.

But Rhodes wasn’t about to deprive Tony of the full university experience just because he got into a tertiary institution at seventeen.

He, like Bucky, had found out for himself that if Tony wanted to do something, nothing and no one could tell him differently; as long as no one else got hurt, and Tony was very meticulous about that too.

In fact, when he did drink, he’d almost always drink in the room, and would put himself to bed before Bucky even got back from class. The only evidence of any actual drinking being the empty bottles Bucky would find in the bin, and the way Tony would always snore like a freight train.

It’s just Bucky’s luck that on the rare occasion that Tony drank outside of the room that Bucky wasn’t there to keep an eye on how much Tony was putting away.

Not for the first time today does Bucky curse Barton for setting off that goddamn fire detector and pushing their lab back more than two hours.

No doubt either Thor’s not insignificant role in getting Tony sloshed. In Asgard, apparently, the legal drinking age is twelve which means the prince is the likeliest candidate to blame for this: Tony Stark. Lying in his bed. Drunk.

And now that Bucky’s _really_ looking: mostly unclothed.

At some stage, Tony must have cut himself free from his tight-as-hell, practically-painted pants (Bucky remembers them being pinstripe blue this morning), and has also, at some point, peeled off his stupidly expensive tie-dye t-shirt.

Rich people, Bucky has often lamented, have all the money and none of the taste.

Tony’s socks though, match his boxer briefs.

A sensible black, though, probably made of silk instead of the same sensible cotton as Bucky’s ones given the way the material stretches enticingly over the cradle of his hips, cupping the bulge at his front tenderly –

 _Ugh, get it together, Barnes,_ he internally scolds, even as he groans aloud.

Tony – possibly, maybe, _very likely_ – knowing about Bucky’s stupid crush on him is one thing, acting on it and upsetting their friendship/roommate situation is a different thing entirely.

Not to mention that Rhodes had been _very_ clear that though he may have graduated and left Tony behind, he’d been eighteen when he got his pilot’s license and he isn’t about to let it go to waste. _“They let me fly fighter jets now,”_ Rhodes had told him all too casually.

Though it wasn’t like Bucky _needed_ to be warned off Tony.

Tony’s a goddamn kid.

A genius kid, sure, but he’s still a kid, even at twenty. Bucky’s got six years on him. He’s practically ancient as Peter, Ned, MJ and Riri have taken to reminding him – and goddamn it, these interns for the summer programme are getting younger and younger, he’s pretty sure there are barely twelve permanent teeth between them altogether.

The point, however, still stands that Bucky cannot and should not be eying Tony up like the feast he’s presented himself as; miles of enticing honey skin, loose limbs and messy curls; no matter how Tony peers up at Bucky from inky lashes and sleepy golden eyes and pouts. “Are you gonna cuddle me or not?”

When Bucky only sighs, Tony brings out the big guns and shoots him the puppy eyes, lip curling in a pout. “Come _on,_ it’s the least you could do.”

“Tony,” Bucky breathes out, trying to find some semblance of control.

“C’mon,” he whines, fluttering his lashes, “I’m getting cold.” Then, “I’m not drunk enough for this kind of behavior.”

“ _You_ aren’t?” Bucky repeats laughingly incredulous.

“You’re supposed to take care of me,” Tony tells him, “you always do.” Glaring at him now, Tony orders impatiently, hands outstretched, “Now, get over here and cuddle me.”

With another huff of a breath, Bucky decides he’s too drunk for this too, and goes.

“You’re a brat, you know that?” Bucky mumbles against his skin.

Tony ruffles the back of his hair, fingers combing through it with just a little bit of nail to the scalp to make any protests Bucky has fizzle into a purr. “You still like me.”

A more sober him will deal with this, Bucky decides, sighing, “Yeah, I do.”

For an instant – just an instant – Tony tenses up, something Bucky definitely does not approve of because Tony’s a lot more comfortable when he’s soft and pliant. Nuzzling twice into the lee of Tony’s neck and doing it again just to feel Tony shiver; Tony’s grasp tightens around Bucky’s shoulders in a squeeze. “Even when I’m being a brat?”

Bucky huffs out an amused breath. “Even then.”

“Promise?”

Drawing away enough to look Tony in the eye, Bucky says, “I promise, darlin’.”

Even doe eyed and blinking a little sleepily, Tony’s smile is luminous, and his cheek warms beneath Bucky’s lips as Bucky adds, “Now go to sleep, sober me needs his rest to yell at you later for your drunk and disorderly. This is still my bed.”

Tony nuzzles back into Bucky, burying his nose in his hair and rubbing his shoulders as he mumbles, “Let’s be honest, it’s much better with me in it.”

Yeah, Bucky thinks, it is, but that’ll be future-sober Bucky’s problem.

**Author's Note:**

> Lmao would you believe this was from last year's winteriron month? The prompt was "bed sharing" combined with the phrase "I'm too drunk for this". I forgot to post my entry because life, but its soft and cuddly, and that'll never go out of style so.


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